ROCKFORD — The canopy along Rural Street was thinned this week as the city chopped down about 20 trees and pruned 40 more between Fairview Boulevard and Prospect Street.

The work removed trees in parkways that were decaying or growing into power lines. It also prepped the area for new trees to be planted later this spring, said Mark Stockman, the city’s street and forestry superintendent.

The bare stretches of boulevard where trees once stood and the stumps left behind aggravated some residents, who were left to wonder when the city will clean up the mess.

“We used to be the Forest City. What happened?” said Maggie Sadler, who lives along Rural. “The whole street is a mess — they left all the stumps and all the grindings everywhere.”

Stockman said the city would hire contractors to grind the stumps and reseed and restore the landscape. New trees are likely to be planted along Rural in May and June, although there probably will be fewer of them, Stockman said, to ensure that new plantings don’t interfere with power lines the way their predecessors did. The city hasn’t determined how many trees or what species will be planted.

“Site inspections are needed first to establish how much growing room exists,” Stockman said in an email.

A variety of species were removed, the majority of them Norway Maples, Stockman said. The Norway Maple is considered an invasive species by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources because it creates dense shade and displaces native trees, shrubs and herbs. Norway Maples typically were planted decades ago to replace trees lost to Dutch Elm disease, according to ecosystemgardening.com. The state DNR now recommends against planting of Norway Maples. The removed trees will be ground for use as mulch.

The city has similar pruning and removal projects planned throughout the year but hasn’t identified its next target areas, Stockman said. He said Rural Street had been a high priority for the city because neighborhood groups planned to move forward with beautification efforts in the spring.